Seneca - College of Stoic Philosophers

DECLINE OF SENECA'S INFLUENCE 99continued at intervals of five years for centuries.A festival of this kind, copied from a Greek model,was a novelty to the Romans, who had been accustomedto profess a singular contempt for theathletic and artistic achievements held in suchhonour by the Greeks.^ There were mutteringsfrom conservatives, who deplored the Stateencouragement of Greek accomplishments unworthyof Romans but these;were answered bythe upholders of modern ideas, who dwelt on therelief to the magistrates, ruined by the expenseof the shows they were obliged to provide for thepeople out of their private means, when a part ofthis expense should be defrayed from the publicpurse and also on the stimulus to intellectual;activity which the prizes at these contests forpoetry and eloquence would supply. The firstcelebration of the Neronia, as the games werecalled, was decently conducted. The prize foreloquence was not competed for but formallyallotted to Nero.The following year (61) was rendered memorableby the disaster in Britain, where 70,000Romans are said to have been massacred in asudden rising of the inhabitants under their warriorqueen, Boadicea. The rising was suppressed bythe energy and ability of the governor, SuetoniusPaullinus. Nero had no liking for successfulcommanders, and Suetonius was rewarded forhis victory by his recall.1Lucan, vii. 270: ' Graiis delecta juventus Gymnasiis aderit,'studioque ignava palaestrae.' Tac, Ann. xiv. 20 :Degeneretquestudiis externis juventus, gymnasia et otia et turpes am oresexercendo, Principe et Senatu auctoribus.'